After latest opponent injury, Bisping labels McGregor 'one of the luckiest men in MMA'

Michael Bisping said he’s in awe of the amount of opponent withdrawals that UFC featherweight champion Conor McGregor has experienced through just over a handful of fights with the promotion.

McGregor (19-2 MMA, 7-0 UFC) has built himself into one of the biggest stars in the sport through just seven octagon appearances, but Bisping (27-7 MMA, 17-7 UFC) said that status has come through a few fortunate occurrences.

The latest of those occurrences saw a broken foot force UFC lightweight champ Rafael dos Anjos (25-7 MMA, 14-5 UFC) out of a planned title defense against McGregor at UFC 196 on March 5. It’s the fourth time McGregor has lost an opponent in eight scheduled UFC fights, with half of those incidents taking place within two weeks of fight night.

Although McGregor should be commended for his willingness to take a fight under any circumstances, Bisping said part of the reason he’s been able to reach a 7-0 record in UFC competition is because the replacement opponents weren’t exactly prepared.

Bisping, who fights Anderson Silva in the main event of Saturday’s UFC Fight Pass-streamed UFC Fight Night 84 from The O2 in London,  said that will likely be the case when McGregor’s new opponent for UFC 196 is announced.

“As far as a replacement, Conor’s going to be at an advantage against whichever replacement they bring in simply because it’s extremely short notice,” Bisping told MMAjunkie. “It’s only just over a week away. So Conor is one of the luckiest men in MMA. Of course he’s extremely talented, I’m not taking anything away from him, but he keeps getting these fights with guys on short notice. God bless him.”

UFC 196 takes place at Las Vegas’ MGM Grand Garden Arena. The main card airs on pay-per-view following prelims on FOX Sports 1 and UFC Fight Pass.

Who will McGregor’s next short-notice opponent for the event? More than a dozen fighter have volunteered their services via social media, but the UFC has yet to make an official announcement regarding which direction it will go.

If Bisping had it his way, though, he said he would pull McGregor from the card and wait to reschedule the fight with dos Anjos. It was a historic matchup that would allow McGregor to be the UFC’s first titleholder in two weight classes simultaneously, and it could be difficult to replicate those stakes.

Despite that thought, “The Count” said he knows that’s not a particularly realistic option. The UFC has invested in a McGregor main event fight at UFC 196, and regardless of who steps in, Bisping said the show must go on.

“There’re two very different perspectives: there’s the perspective of a fan, of what you want to see, or what you think should happen, then there’s the perspective of the UFC that’s promoting these fighters and spent god knows how much money on this fight and putting everything in place and they want to salvage that,” Bisping said. “So they need to put a replacement, but what you would like to see if the fight put off and they reschedule and do it at a later date. I understand the UFC have invested in this date and in the pay-per-view event so they have to salvage that and the fight has to continue and they have to find somebody else.”

For more on UFC 196, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.